KOLKATA: In a first for Kolkata and the entire eastern India, the city on Monday witnessed a heart transplant surgery.
A heart from a donor was flown in from Bengaluru to Kolkata this morning. It was then taken to Kolkata
Fortis Hospital situated in EM Bypass through a green corridor. Bidhan Nagar commissionerate and
Kolkata Police did a commendable job in creating this corridor which enabled the heart to be brought from
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport to the hospital, a stretch of 18 kilometres, in just 18 minutes.
The donor is 21-year-old Varun BK who died in a road accident. On Saturday, doctors declared him brain death, following which his family expressed their wish to donate his heart. The hospital authorities immediately contacted Chennai's Malhar Fortis Hospital. At that time no recipient was there. They in turn contacted Fortis Hospital Kolkata.
The recipient is 39-year-old Dilchand Singh who has an irreversible severe cardio-myopathy and has been admitted in Fortis since last few weeks. Both the donor and recipient's blood group (A+) matched.
The heart was brought in a chartered flight and reached Kolkata at 11.23am. The surgery has already started and will take at least 3 hours. A team of 30 specialist doctors are present in the surgery. Among them are Dr Tapas Roychowdhury and Dr A K Mandanar.
(Representative image)